I hope that John reaches out to owners to raise capital for ongoing development. Things can really speed up when you have some ongoing revenue to pay the programmers. I'd also love to see a basic computer editor, with easy and simple loading of samples and patch naming to make those things less technical to achieve, and maybe even some hardware upgrades. I think that current users would support the ongoing upgrade of the current Solaris.

As David has suggested, I am now looking to put together a ‘developer fund’ for new DSP software. The regular Operating System code has been worked on by Jim Hewes, who graciously offered last year to do all of the bug fixing and feature adding for free! He has told me a number of times he doesn’t want any compensation for his work, which has just been stellar! I cannot express how grateful I am to Jim for his contributions.

However, Jim is not a DSP coder, so I have investigated some other resources, and have now found an experienced DSP software developer. Now the question remains - how much would people pay, and what items would be expected/desired to have working for this funding.

For this idea to work, I think we are going to need a commitment of each interested owner of about $200. This will provide at least 6 months of code work. A list of features that would be finished in this first project will have to be defined, so if you are interested, please add to this thread with your wishes and priorities.

Lastly - there is this issue of fairness...what about the owners who do not want to contribute to the fund? What it really amounts to is basically the same sort of business model as when people ordered from me directly - they had to pre-pay, and wait for the finished product. Such a major DSP code update would have to be a purchased item - you would have to pay for a software upgrade, which would be keyed to each individual Solaris.

Anyway, I need to find out how many of you would be willing to pre-pay DSP code development work, and exactly what features you would expect.

Please leave your responses here, and let’s see what we all can do together!

Ok for a 200$ commitment for the OS2.0.
For the owners who don't want to fund the developement, they could purchase the update later for say 250-300$ (because you need funds now).
For new Solaris owners, they could also choose to fund OS2.0 for 200$ when funding their Solaris.

Now the features I'd like to see :
- 4 chanel multimode
- Multisampling ability with internal editor (define a note range/level/tuning for each sample in the multisample)
- Global Reverb with different algos : stadium, hall, room, plate, non-linear, reverse, gate, spring...
- BBD simulation for the Delay
- Better FX routings with busses/chains ala Korg (you can choose to link the 4 FXs in serial/parallel, send any 4 part of a Preset to the input FX of your choice...)
- 4 FX per slot in multimode (each chanel has 4 FX busses) : not sure this is easily possible because of the Sharc static assignation. If not, same routings as in Preset mode but chanel-wise

Hi John,
I would also be ready to fund 200$ to expand the development of the Solaris. Like many other owners, I would like to have multitimbrality and a more complex effect sections. Another feature could be a more complete FM process.
Only then would it be interesting to have more than 1O voices (through dynamic allocation of the DSP or an expander).
Best regards.

I understand that the purpose of this is primarily to fund a DSP developer.
Maybe I'll be a slightly different voice here, but as far as I'm concerned the Solaris is already so deep in terms of sound design that multitimbrality / a split keyboard performance mode would be good enough, and perhaps some new effects too.

In my view the sound engine is nothing without usability, and the priority for long term enjoyment + preservation of our investment remains rock solid operation throughout : quick & responsive interface, no odd display bugs, flawless MIDI / arpeggiator timing, etc. Also : continued operation of this website, parts availability etc.

Jim has been very generous with his time and we've been lucky for that, but it's dangerous to rely on luck and generosity alone : I think that part of the fund should go towards making the Solaris future-proof, and flawless within the current set of sonic features. If we get more than that, great, but first things first !

I would like to again thank Jim for everything that he has done with his work on the Solaris. His efforts made an already great synth even greater. I really am enjoying the new functionality.

I would be willing to pay $200 or more to get this going. I may be in the minority of wanting the Solaris to be Multitimbral - it is not at the top of my priority list.

My priority list:
- more filters & oscillators - an emulation of the CS-80 filters and oscillators would be great
- Multi sample playback - one sample set ties up one oscillator and plays across the keyboard
- more random parameters to create a more analogue experience (without tying up oscillators) - like the Oberheim SEM VST from Arturia or the ME-80. I envision this as 10 voice cards where you could set tuning, scaling, drift, filter, VCA, panning ,etc. per card.
- set VCA panning of voices (like the OBs)
- reverb
- compressor

I am fine with the number of current voices (although more is always better) and would like and use Multitimbrality if it was not too hard to implemet.

I think 2.0 should be narrow in scope and all about *infrastructure* and not *sound updates* (much like Reno above). Pick a few things and do them well:

1) Sampler upgrade: multi-sample and simplified sample loading and update in way samples are used. Scrolling through samples should work just like wavetables (might also need a hardware memory upgrade).

Add 0/+6/+12 dB level boost as a per oscillator setting, so you don't have to use a mixer for that

Implement 'control shapers'. (As far as I can tell, this module never got beyond planning.)

Voice number as mod source. (Could be useful for e.g. pan modulation.)

OK, a reverb effect would also be nice. However, good external multi-fx boxes can be bought rather inexpensively nowadays, so I'd prefer the development effort for Solaris to focus on voice generation and control.

I think there is a risk that too few Solaris owners offer to fund further OS development, so the total amount raised will be insufficient. Considering this risk, I'm willing to pay $500 for an OS upgrade promising to implement (at least most of and the most significant of) the functions mentioned above.

Been contemplating this today and I keep coming back to building out sample oscillators as a good direction for Solaris.
It's an epic synth, but synth layered with samples would be so epic. Imaging the soundscapes you could make,
if you could upload sounds, modulate sample start, sample end, sample forward/reverse, sample number!!, and layer it with synthesis.
John B is the best person in the universe to design the workflow for the ideas on this thread, so we are lucky.
I also agree with CA3080 above, we might want to raise it to $500.

3.) Increase polyphony from 2 voices per DSP to 3 voices per DSP (if feasible with reasonable effort - not an easy task due to the size of the oscillator code, if I understood correctly).

4.) Support for an (external) voice expansion, like discussed in your thread about new Solaris hardware.

5.) More (and more sophisticated) effects and effect routings. The effects DSP does have some margins, if I understood correctly.

Best regards, Manfred

It’s important to know how much more owners would be willing to pay. This would affect the schedule significantly in terms of being able to get things up and running quickly. Please everyone let me know.

As to your points, I have a couple of short comments:

1) yes almost everyone has this on the list
2) yes this is important to me as well
3) not possible with the current hardware
4) already done
5) definitely, and this area may be the first area to receive attention

Point 1) is an absolute requirement for me to fund the OS2 : I wouldn't go that way without 4-voice multitimbrality.

I'm also in for point 5) but this is not as vital as point 1). We already have external multiFX units, but nothing could replace a multimode.

Full analog drift is also something that can improve the almost perfect Solaris sound. When you want to mimic a SEM or P-5, you need analog drift, otherwise modelling is not perfect. To me Solaris needs to be improved in this area. Even the DeepMind 12 can do this...